Romanian Orthodox Mission in Transnistria

[a] Puiu received the official title of "Bishop of Odesa and all Transnistria" but his ecclesiastic province was, under canon law, a temporary exarchate of military nature.

The second important point of the mandate given to me in Transnistria was the systematization of social life, a necessary action requiring two immediate steps: an urgent, sometimes surgical one falling in the hands of the civil administration and the Army; and the other of constant spiritual renewal through the Orthodox Church and school.

[18] Biliuță argues that Puiu implicitly placed the responsibility for the murder of Jews with the secular authorities while failing to report the participation of his clergy in the violence and robbery thus protecting his friends, such as Antim Nica as well as his subordinates in general.

[12] Ion Popa also cites the 1942 report and notes that it constituted evidence in Puiu's trial for war crimes with prosecutors arguing the Metropolitan encouraged "terror actions".

He points out that, comparatively, the population in Transnistria enjoyed a more favorable religious situation than that of the German-occupied Reichskommissariat Ukraine and that there was some enthusiasm for the Christian revival brought by the Romanians, at least in the first two years of the occupation.

[21] He also notes that Puiu was a less radical supporter of Romanianization than his predecessor Scriban, occasionally holding religious services in Church Slavonic or giving sermons in Russian.

In a particularly shocking scene, Lecca reports his conversation with a hieromonk named Gurie who advised him to rape Jewish women, probably from a nearby ghetto, in order avoid becoming sick from abstinence.

When Lecca protested, arguing that such acts were sinful, Gurie responded that the women were not baptized, thus a simple prayer to the Holy Virgin would grant absolution.

[20][22] Overall, the sexual conduct of the Romanian clergy was scandalous to a point where, pressured by both Government and Church authorities, Puiu was forced to issue stricter guidelines.